Henri Vieuxtemps - Violin Works (Alexander Markov)

Information

Composer: Henri Vieuxtemps

1. Variations on a Theme from Beethoven's "Romance No. 1 in G Major, Op. 40"
2. Fantasie in E Major, Op. 9b "La Sentimentale"
3. Air varié No. 3
4. Variations on a Theme from Bellini's "Norma", Op. 2
5. Violin Concerto No. 8 in B Minor, Op. 59: I. Allegro maestoso (arr. C. Baumgarten)
6. La fiancée de Messine: Scène de ballet (arr. M. Majkusiak)

Alexander Markov, violin

Thüringen Philharmonie Gotha-Eisenach

Markus Huber, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574363

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Review

Well, now you’ve seen the name of the composer and quickly read the titles of the music, you are here thinking ‘Do I really want to hear a load of obscure 19th-century violin works that I’ve never heard of and am unlikely to encounter ever again?’

Please, dear reader, think again, because whatever you think of the repertoire, you will have missed out on hearing a sensationally good fiddle player. The Russian-American violinist Alexander Markov, if you haven’t come across him before, is the real deal – thrilling, leading from the front, swooping up to stratospherically high notes with palpable relish and virile projection. His long cantabile phrases almost purr. In terms of technical accomplishment and velvet-toned bravura he gives Heifetz and Vengerov a run for their money. Even if the music sometimes goes out of its way to be trivial, Markov makes you think you are listening to a masterpiece. He has been playing (and continues to programme) Paganini’s First Concerto since the age of 12, so has a lifetime’s immersion in this type of violin repertoire, of which the present recording is a notable example (Markov recorded the Second, Fourth and Fifth Concertos of Vieuxtemps a while back – Apex, 3/03). If you love the works of the Italian master, then you will love these too.

With the exception of the unfinished Violin Concerto No 8, all the works here were discovered only after Vieuxtemps’s death, all them are receiving their world premiere recordings and, apart from the Concerto and the ballet excerpt, were written early in Vieuxtemps’s career (c1833-38). Furthermore, like Paganini, Vieuxtemps was a very fine orchestrator, as anyone who knows the introduction to his Violin Concerto No 1 will attest (at the premiere it received a standing ovation before the 18-year-old composer had shouldered his violin). Written in 1838-39, it’s an extraordinary – and extraordinarily difficult – work, so not surprisingly there is more than a taste of the concerto’s pyrotechnical demands and lyrical grace in the three sets of variations and the Fantaisie (the Norma Variations, incidentally, is based on the March of the Druids from Act 1).

The Eighth Concerto (1880) was dedicated to Eugène Ysaÿe, Vieuxtemps’s most illustrious pupil. He managed to complete only the first movement in piano score with just a few hints regarding orchestration. In 2020, for the 200th anniversary of his birth, composer Christoph Baumgarten produced an orchestral score. You can’t see the join. More conventional in structure than the much-recorded Concertos Nos 4 and 5, No 8 is a further illustration of Vieuxtemps’s gift as a melodist and someone who seems to have enjoyed the pure physical delight of dazzling audiences with feats that would have them on the edge of their seats. The charismatic Markov duly obliges. After that, the disc’s concluding Scène de ballet is rather an anticlimax. Markus Huber and his Thuringian players are with their swashbuckling soloist every step of the way, making the most of Vieuxtemps’s dramatic colours and declamatory tuttis. With an excellent booklet by Olaf Adler and Agnès-Briolle Vieuxtemps, the composer’s great-great-granddaughter, this, in short, is Naxos at its best.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://www.classical-music.com/reviews/concerto/vieuxtemps-violin-concerto-no-8-etc/

https://www.wtju.net/alexander-markov-excels-with-vieuxtemps-violin-works/

https://www.naxos.com/Review/Detail/?catalogueid=8.574363&languageid=EN

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Henri Vieuxtemps (17 February 1820 – 6 June 1881) was a Belgian composer and violinist. He occupies an important place in the history of the violin as a prominent exponent of the Franco-Belgian violin school during the mid-19th century. The bulk of Vieuxtemps's compositions were for his own instrument, including seven concertos and a variety of short salon pieces. He is also known for playing upon what is now known as the Vieuxtemps Guarneri del Gesu, built in 1741, a violin of superior workmanship. The instrument was later played by noted violin masters like Yehudi Menuhin, Itzhak Perlman and Pinchas Zukerman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Vieuxtemps

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Alexander Markov is a Russian American violinist who has received awards from the Paganini International Violin Competition (gold medal) and the Avery Fisher Career Grant. He is known for his recording of Paganini's 24 Caprices for Solo Violin, particularly for his interpretation of the left-hand pizzicato section of the 24th Caprice. A film of Markov playing the Caprices was directed by Bruno Monsaingeon. Markov has recorded for the Erato label, distributed worldwide by Warner Classics. He has performed with such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Ivan Fischer, Neeme Järvi, Zdeněk Mácal, Lorin Maazel, and Gerard Schwarz.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Markov

https://www.alexandermarkov.com/

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